Author: Jeeping and RVing in Colorado

Today Jeff Hardin and I headed over to the Poughkeepsie Gulch Trail. It is a 7.8 mile between Ouray and Silverton.

One of the most difficult trails in the area, amazing views and a ton of fun.

This trail has a very long, steep climb of loose rock and is a challenge to climb. Once you make it to the wall, the fun begins. It’s not recommended for stock SUV’s going uphill but many have managed.

We went down and turned around and went back up. Then back down again. I have a wench but no lockers but made it up without winching. If you need the winch, the wall has multiple winch points to help if you get stuck

This is one of the best trails we have been on. Will be going back again.

The Steps

We decided to take a ride over Black Bear Pass.

Jeff S and Jeff H made it over Black Bear with no problems. It’s a beautiful ride to the top with many water falls and wild flowers. A couple of spots that will get your heart racing but for the most part it’s  not that bad.

The steps are rocks that slant to the left while you are turning to the right plus they can get slick. The turn is just about wide enough for a Jeep to make the turn. If you were to slip off the side…..well it was nice knowing ya!

The pictures don’t come close to doing it justice.

We ran down to the Riverfest in Ridgway yesterday. It’s such a cute little town and fun was had by all. The river is very low this year but they still had the river race.

Rock Man

Freezing at the top.

Colorado State Flower “The Blue Columbine”

Kim has found that if she drives she don’t get sick. So we went to Montrose and back and she thought maybe if she was driving we could drive a few of the Jeep trails. Off we go to try a little of Imogene. She made it to the top and most of the way down into Telluride. We did see plenty of wildflowers, a little snow and a large herd of Elk.

Imogene is the highest mountain pass in the San Juan mountains. It is the second highest vehiclular mountain crossing in Colorado.

Pics of ride today

Kent and Josie

It was freezing on top of Imogene Pass

The road to the top of Imogene pass

Marmot hill. A large family of Marmots live here. 

Snow melting away

The trails zig zag up the mountains, steep in some places.

Wildflowers cover the hill side

A few more pics of our jeeping today. Almost as beautiful as my wife!

The rollover at Imogene Pass

Look close. Yellow vehicle rollover.

3 people and a dog on the tour when the driver rolled over. No one was hurt!

This is the top of Imogene Pass. 13,114 feet high. The rollover vehicle is just over to the right.

A coworker stopped by the campground for a couple of days. Kent and Josie Meek are from Roanoke Virginia and they have been on the road since April. They were in Montana until a few days ago stopping by Moab for a couple days then stopped by Ouray for a couple days.

Today we decided to ride over Imogene Pass to Telluride. The weather was perfect for the drive. We saw deer, marmot and ever a few American Pika. Aka “rock rabbits”

The wild flowers were blooming and the snow was melting. It did not matter which way you looked, the views were amazing.

The pictures don’t do it justice. Look close at some of the road pics. Sometimes we are driving up or down the creek. Sometimes the road looks like it will end at a wall of rocks but you just keep going driving over the rocks and down the other side.

So we make it to the top of Imogene Pass and stop to look down at the Telluride airport and take a couple of pics. It’s freezing up there and very windy. Then we jump back in and start down the mountain when we see a guided tour vehicle overturned. It rolled over while we were taking pics. Luckily no one was hurt. Three peeps and a dog were in the vehicle. It was not a Jeep, something else.

So being no other way to get down to Telluride we turned around back to Ouray.

A Toyota was trying to climb the mountain so it had everyone stopped at a wide spot in the road. Now we couldn’t go up or down, so we watched the marmots play. The Toyota finally got cleared of the road and down we went. We thought we were going to see another roll over.

Anyway, it was a great day of jeeping. After looking at the pics you can tell just being here and able to see this country side is a great day.

Sometimes the road is a creek or the creek is the road.

That’s a good looking Jeep!Waterfalls are everywhere.

Wildflowers everywhere

Kent and Josie  I asked her to take a couple steps back but she wasn’t buying it.The Toyota trying to make it up the hill.

You just have to drive the road to believe it.

The Toyota about to slip off the mountain.

So, word gets around fast….and the news of us owning a pair of clippers and that I cut Jeff’s hair got around and Jeff2 needed a haircut.  We didn’t bring all of the blade guards, so a #2 it was for Jeff2!!  I’m so glad he was so willing to buzz his hair off!  It made for a fun afternoon.  So if you ever wonder what we do around the campsite, you see it here.  You never can tell what we are up too!